Lawyers are subject to very high professional standards. They have to attend specialized law school programs and pass the state bar exam. They must then adhere to best practices to retain the right to work in the legal sector.
Legal malpractice involves a significant deviation from current industry standards that causes harm to a client. A lawyer ignoring the statute of limitations could lead to claims of legal malpractice. So could scenarios where attorneys show up to a court hearing drunk. Other forms of malpractice may not be quite so overt but can still have negative consequences for the clients of attorneys.
Financial issues can also provide the basis for legal malpractice lawsuits. If lawyers require retainers from their clients, they have to follow certain rules related to those retainers. Clients may be able to take legal action when their lawyers do not follow best practices with their retainers.
Retainers should be separate
Retainers do not technically belong to the attorney or the law firm that employs them. Instead, they are funds held in escrow that technically still belong to the clients until they have settled all of the invoices for their legal matters.
Retainers, much like security deposits for rental homes, belong in separate financial accounts. Lawyers should not deposit them into a business account or into their personal bank account. They should also return any amount not utilized to settle outstanding invoices.
Clients deserve invoice transparency
Attorneys have to accurately account for every deduction they make from retainer funds. They have an obligation to provide detailed invoices breaking down all of the billable work on the case. They typically have to detail how much time they spent addressing different matters for their clients and should bill in appropriate increments based on the services provided.
Billing a client for an hour of time to send a two-sentence response to a four-sentence email is likely an egregious overestimate. Attorneys sometimes pad their invoices by drastically increasing the amount of time spent on client matters to burn through the retainer that the client provided.
When clients have questions about whether the financial practices of their lawyer constitute malpractice, they may need help determining if they have a case. Reviewing financial records with a malpractice attorney can help frustrated legal clients hold their attorneys accountable for misconduct. Inappropriate billing behavior is a form of legal malpractice that may justify litigation.